Jarod the Builder
by pretenderchik20
Summary: Jarod investigates the death of the foreman at a construction site


Jarod The Builder- by KatRiley02 aka Jules

Author's Notes: This story is in response to LadyNiko's construction murder challenge.

Disclaimer: I do not own pretender, otherwise it would still be on the air!! I'll return them to where I found them once I've played with them for awhile!! LOL!! Scott's last name in this story was inspired by the ever wild Remi LeBeau of XMen.

LadyNiko, thank you!! that challenge inspired me to write this and nance thank you thank you for taking your time to beta this for me and help me make this fic really shine!! Nance (maestra) and Heidi (LadyNiko) you will find yourselves written into my story.

= separation of scenes ####= Jarod's flashbacks

Jarod had finished his pretend,he left a note and pez on the shelf of the locker, and shut the door.He knew Sydney and his huntress would soon arrive searching for him under false pretenses.Who would they be this time? An employer,his father and sister, the IRS? Why they said such dumb things always brought a grin to his face. He thumbed through a red notebook he had pulled from his jacket pocket, a news article revealed to him his next pretend. A job construction site where the death of the foreman,Scott LeBeau was under investigation. The story had said he was a divorced father of one, a boy whose name was unmentioned.

A few moments later, a black centre vehicle pulled into the parking lot. A centre sweeper in a black uniform opened the door for Miss Parker. The opposite door opened, revealing centre psychiatrist, Sydney.

Miss Parker turned, removing her sunglasses, "Inside, find him. I don't care what you have to do, find him". She marched up the sidewalk, her heels clicking on the cement below.

Inside, they met up with the director of the gym and were led to Jarod's locker, in his locker, was the note left for Miss Parker. "Miss P. Sorry I missed you. Have some pez! J" just to the side was a pez dispenser filled with pez.

At the construction site, Jarod picked up a yellow hard hat and headed for the scene of the accident. He noticed as he walked through the tunnels,the walls being redone and water dripping from the sides from a recent rain. A blonde, broadshouldered man approached him, Jarod noticed his nametag read "Jeremy",he was the acting foreman. A quick look at a nearby wall inspired a last name, Walls. Jarod shook Jeremy's hand and introduced himself as "Jarod Walls", a new construction worker to the area. Excusing himself, Jarod headed for the crime scene to investigate, The victim had fallen from a high area,toward the top of the tunnel and broken his neck. "The man couldn't have fallen," he paused, "Not if he was on the right scaffolding." he speculated.

Later that night, Jarod started up the dsa player and slipped in a dsa from about 15 years ago.

####Jarod sat at a table in his room, analyzing a model of the crime scene. He was searching for the answer to his latest sim. "A man has fallen to his death in a construction zone. We need to know what caused his death and how to prevent it Jarod" Sydney explained.

Jarod smiled and pointed out the answer, it was so simple. "The scaffolding needs to be made of steel. The scaffolding was made from inferior grade metal, not strong enough to sustain the weight it needed to bear."

Sydney smiled, "Very good Jarod."######

The DSA screen faded to black. Suddenly it snapped in his mind,"It wasn't the scaffolding Sydney, it was something done wrong with it. Someone tampered with it." .He would ask to see the scaffolding in the morning.

Back at the centre, Sydney and Miss Parker circled around Angelo, who now held Jarod's note. " Angelo, I need you to tell me anything you can about where Jarod might have gone." Sydney spoke softly to Angelo.

"Jarod still there Sydney. Not gone, just different place." Another image flashed in his mind, it was a dark place with water and concrete. "Water, concrete...Jarod confused. Wants to find...answers."

Miss Parker suddenly remembered, "A construction site near the gym Sydney. We missed it."

Anticipating Miss Parker's next move,Sydney picked up the phone and told the sweeper on the other end to ready the car for Dover once again.

At the construction site, Jarod approached one of the men on duty and asked to see the scaffolding being used by the foreman. He picked up the scaffolding and harness and looked over the ropes. He noticed a few metal buckles and one of the ropes had been tampered with, suprised no one noticed it, he quietly placed it in the trunk of the rental car and went off to talk to other construction workers on the site.

While completing his cementing task in section 3 of the tunnel, Jarod met Mark. At the sound of the lunch whistle,Mark and Jarod headed out of the tunnel and found a seat at lunch. Mark pulled out a note on top of his sandwich and read it aloud. "Dad, have a good day, Remember Bob the Builder, he can fix it, yes he can! You're even better than Bob, Daddy!!"

Jarod suddenly looked confused,knowing he had not been introduced to such a person,"Bob..the builder? Do you know this..Bob? Who is he?"

Mark laughed, "Bob the builder is a cartoon my 4 year old son watches. The cartoon is about a construction worker who builds and fixes things."

Jarod nodded. "Bob the builder, interesting." he pondered their conversation for a moment and continued on with his tuna sandwich, something he had also just discovered, fish that was mixed with mayonnaise and placed on bread.

During lunch, Mark had commented that he was once friends with Jeremy. He also added that Jeremy was in fact no longer that friendly around Scott after a few weeks of working with him. There were rumors about Scott and Jeremy's wife. 'Could that have been the reason for Scott's death?' Jarod wondered. He couldn't be sure yet.

Jarod returned to the hotel,took a seat on the end of the bed, and placed a call to Sydney. On the other end Sydney picked up, "This is Sydney" Sydney knew when there was no response on the end of the line, it was Jarod. "Hello Jarod."

Jarod held his breath for a moment, "Hello Sydney. I need to ask you something. What if you suspected that someone murdered another person, but you didn't have all the evidence yet?"

Sydney smiled. "Let your instincts tell you,what is your gut feeling about it?"

Jarod closed his eyes for a moment. Sydney was right. "Thank you Sydney."

Jarod shut off the cellphone and looked over the scaffolding he had brought back.

Miss Parker walked into Sydney's office. "Time to go Syd."

Sydney turned toward her nodding. "That was Jarod on the phone."

Miss Parker gave him a blank stare, "I guess the labrat needed to call home for advice, huh Syd?"

Sydney grinned at Miss Parker's comment, picked up his jacket on the back of the chair in his office, and followed Miss Parker out the door, "Time to go pick up your labrat, Dr. Frankenstein."Miss Parker said snidely.

Jarod headed back to the construction tunnels early the next morning,Jarod glanced at his watch, it was still early morning. He breathed in the fresh morning air, he still needed more information from Mark. Jarod saw Mark just ahead of him and flagged him down, "Hey Mark, I was wondering if I could treat you to breakfast, a bad cup of coffee?" Jarod joked. Mark accepted and they headed for the coffee stand just a few feet from their jobsite . Once there, they both ordered a cup of coffee. As they waited for their coffee, Jarod decided to start off asking questions, "Mark, can I ask why you think Jeremy's wife was having an affair with Scott?"

Mark looked at Jarod very seriously. "Jeremy once said he believed they were, Jeremy introduced his wife to Scott when he brought him home with him for dinner one night. Jeremy said after that, his wife acted very strange and was gone all the time, most of the time late at night. She would tell him that she went to see a late night movie or out shopping. One night she didn't come home."

Jarod now suspected that Jeremy was the one who had indeed caused the accident that killed Scott. Jarod finished his work for the day and snuck over to Jeremy's toolbox. Opening the dark red toolbox, he reached inside and found a large wire cutter.He quickly hid the tool in the box he had borrowed from a supply case on the construction site and headed for his hotel room.

Once inside his hotel room,Jarod found a place on the floor near the scaffolding he had brought back with him just a few nights before. He set down his toolbox and pulled out the wire cutter and a magnifying glass. Under the magnifying glass, the metal cutting shears of the tool appeared to have scratch marks that looked fresh.

The scaffold ropes that had been tampered with were cut at an angle. Fresh clean cuts made by some type of scissor or metal shear. The scratches in the wire cutter were also at an angle, this was the tool used to cut the ropes. Now he was sure Jeremy was the one who had caused the death of Scott LeBeau.

Now he could make the plan to catch Jeremy for Scott's death.

The next morning started out like any other or so everyone thought. Jarod would change that soon and send Jeremy off to the justice he deserved, a prison cell. 'Just perfect,' Jarod thought as Jeremy approached.

Jarod followed Jeremy through the tunnel and right to the site where Jarod would play out "Operation Justice" as he cunningly called it. Jarod asked Jeremy to look at a spot on an area up toward the top of section 3. Jarod substituted the scaffolding he had brought back from the hotel room. Unknown to Jeremy it had been fixed to fail, part of Jarod's plan.

Jeremy agreed to Jarod's request and got onto the scaffolding and harness. Suddenly the ropes started to go slack. Jeremy started to get scared.

Jarod leaned up against the wall grinning at Jeremy's situation. "Jarod!! What did you do?" Jeremy yelled looking down.

"Oh don't worry. I only did what you did to Scott, cut the ropes so he would fall and die! Didn't you!" Jarod's voice resonated around the concrete repeating back, "Didn't you!!"

Jeremy's heart raced faster. "Jarod! let me down!" Jarod looked up, snapping open the head of his pez dispenser and eating some of the candy. "Sorry, can't help ya. You didn't help Scott because you found out your wife was cheating on you with him, admit it!"

Jeremy's heart pounded in his ears as Jarod pulled out a tape recorder. "Yes, yes I did. I killed Scott! Let me down Jarod!" Suddenly, one rope broke leaving Jeremy hanging upside down."I'm gonna fall!"

Jarod smiled and pulled off his hard hat. "No, you won't fall! Even if you did,I can't help ya. You see I'm not a construction worker, I'm just pretending." Jarod laughed and walked away.

The police arrived and walked toward the tunnel, Jarod pushed play and handed over the tape recorder to a nearby officer and continued walking, but just a few feet in front of him was Mark.

Jarod smiled as he walked up to Mark, he pulled out two "Bob the Builder" pez dispensers and tossed one to Mark.

Jarod popped the head back on the dispenser and flipped a couple pez into his mouth.He smiled back at Mark as he heard, "Can Jarod fix it? Yes he can!". As he got near the curb, a centre towncar drove up and stopped. Jarod ran and hid behind the construction trailer, waiting for all inside the car to leave their seats. Just then, a woman with red hair in a construction outfit walked up to Miss Parker,Sydney, and the sweepers, "Can I help you?"

Miss Parker pulled out a photo and handed it to the girl, "Do you know this man?"

The girl smiled, "Of course I know him, he's Jarod, he should be just over in the tunnel. Follow me." Miss Parker, Sydney, and the sweepers followed the girl up to the tunnels and noticed the man hanging upside down and the groups of police around him.

Knowing the sweeper that had driven would leave the key in the ignition, Jarod ran for the car, got into the front seat, and honked the horn. Miss Parker turned around and watched as Jarod waved, smiled, and drove away. Parker removed her sunglasses. "Jarod!" Turning to the sweepers, she put on an ice queen stare. "What are you looking at? Call The Centre and get us out of here..well...NOW!" Parker looked over at Sydney, who was laughing at Jarod's highjinx. "Syd, your labrat escaped again. You find this funny how?" Tossing Sydney a disgusted look, she lit a cigarette and watched the police toss the criminal Jarod had stopped, into the back of the police car.

Heading onto the highway, Jarod pulled out another notebook with more newspaper scraps inside, opening it to another page was a photo of an older gentleman in a dark leather jacket. "Dad. I'll find you this time." He took a sip from his coffee he had stopped for in a shop just before he had hit the highway.

Jarod reached for the radio dial, searching for a local station. He stopped when a news station became audible, he turned up the volume and listened to the female news woman introduce today's news stories.

"This is Nancy Lambert with the Dover afternoon news.There's an update on a previous news story from Wednesday night, the mystery of the death of foreman Scott LeBeau has been solved. Foreman Jeremy Ruggins has been arrested, charged with the death of his co-foreman. Police have announced they do have Jeremy's confession on tape. When we asked other employees at the site, one man told us, the man responsible for Jeremy's arrest, was only known to him as Jarod. Wherever you are Jarod, Dover thanks you."

Jarod raised his coffee cup as to salute a job well done and gazed once again at the photo of Major Charles. With any luck he could find his dad again and keep the centre off his tail, keeping his huntress just one step behind his next location.

-the end-


End file.
